Alisa Cohn - How to Hold Your Team Accountable

As a leader, one of your most important jobs is to hold your team accountable. It's really hard to hold people accountable without making them feel bad. So here are a few ideas for you to be able to do that. First of all, get in the habit of having debriefs, of having retros of your projects. That way you can talk dispassionately and neutrally about all the things that went right and all the things that went wrong. Just, it's a normal part of everyday health for your team. The second is keep it light. You can make a few jokes, you can make fun of yourself, you can talk about things that naturally go wrong, as in Murphy's Law, what can go wrong will go wrong. That way you can kind of normalize for people. Things are gonna go wrong and it's not a problem, but at the same time it needs to be addressed. And the third thing is always criticize the work, not the person. So you can talk about a part of the project that didn't go well and then get interested and curious about how we can make it go well in the future. All of those point directly to different people having accountability, understanding they need to improve for the future, but not making them feel bad in the moment.